Reimagining Russia's Realms

From a multi-ethnic empire to the first self-proclaimed communist state, Russia claims a place in the world imagination. The diverse historical, geographical, and cultural spaces of the former Russian Empire, the former Soviet Union and its successor states in Central Asia, the Baltic and the Caucasus, and contemporary Russia have produced shifting identities while projecting global power and influence.

The integration and interplay of the arts, history, literature, religion, geography, the social and environmental sciences, mathematics, engineering, and technology will enable students, faculty, alumni, and members of the community and the Commonwealth to more fully realize that Russia embodies so much more than images of Vladimir Lenin or Vladimir Putin convey, or its impressive sprawl across nine time zones (!) on the Eurasian land mass.